Marathon’s Eagle Ford plan: $2.3 billion next year

The company will drill between 250 and 260 wells net to Marathon, after industry partners and royalty owners are paid. (In all, Marathon will be operating between 340 and 355 new wells in South Texas).

The $2.3 billion in spending includes $225 million for pipeline construction and central batteries.

The Eagle Ford spending is about 64 percent of what Marathon plans to spend on its North American shale fields.

Marathon will accelerate rig activity in the Eagle Ford and the Bakken Shale in North Dakota by 20 percent, and by 100 percent in the Oklahoma Woodford.

Among the plans for 2014: testing 30-acre well spacing in some parts of the Eagle Ford.

It expects that completing Eagle Ford wells will cost $6.5 to $7.5 million next year. And it’s looking at co-developing the Eagle Ford and the overlying Austin Chalk.

The company made the announcements recently at an Analyst Day in New York.